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I’m No Prude…So Why Does This Piss Me Off?

Dear readers, I was meandering along looking at blogs when a huuuuuuuuuuuuge vagina practically stepped off the page and slapped me in the face!

I mean it was just….huuuuuge (I have a 27″ screen so I mean huuuuge!) and it was most helpfully held open like a friggin’ garage door with the ‘models’ fingers. For goodness sake, I had just finished reading about some bloggers love for Jesus when this popped up. WHAMMO!

I was pissed. It takes a lot to to annoy me and this did. I couldn’t quite work out why.

Then I tried to articulate it.

I’ve nothing against porn. There’s a market for it and on the surface, if we ignore trafficking and various unacceptable offshoots for sake of argument, it is what it is. But this was so in my face with no warning. The human body is the human body and I’ve never really understood prudery about it. But these pictures were not there artistically or to celebrate the human body. If so, where were the men objectifying themselves, squishing themselves obediently like performing dogs into every imaginable angle to get the shot right up the grand canyons? The picture I used up top is the tamest from this WordPress site – believe me.

I so wanted to use one of the images to generate the same reaction that I felt being confronted with the ones I saw and this was the most usable.

Anyhoo, for me my sheer prickly annoyance can be summed up thus:

The continuous exploitation of women by an industry ran mostly by men…yadda yadda…

The fact that a woman with all the advantages of living in the West, either felt she had no choice or decided that this was the best she could do at some point in her life.

The fact that I’m rather enjoying Wordpess and these people are like the neighbours who move in and ruin it all for everyone.

The fact that whilst there may be a place for sex and porn, ‘normal’ WordPress should not be it. It’s like making a lovely meal and having some d*ckhead sh*t all over your table. Two separate human functions with their own places to perform them.

The fact that a young child could click on these images as easily as I did – like children need dragging into adulthood any faster than they already are these days.

Question:

I could be wrong.

Is it just me or does this creep onto ‘normal’ WordPress piss you off too?…And why?

I agree … WordPress is not the place for this kind of imagery. The name says it all … it is about words. For people prefer to have pornography, they have their own sites.

As for your reaction, I would feel vey similar. It is like watching public acts of more-than-affection on a train … I often want to ask “Why are you subjecting the public to an act that should be private?” I guess some people don’t have boundaries.

3 Eds J-
This kind of stuff is just plain stupid, advertising a high (or non-existent) threshold of intelligence and total lack of compassion. Shock value entertains in low-brow humor, and coupled with porn it scratches the perverted itch of need that some people (men, for the most part) let fester within them. I feel sorry for these people, for they are closed up and small inside their fears, frustrations and loneliness, trying to get the world to notice them, yet only scrabbling at the symptoms of their issues rather than the causes. This kind of subject matter does not belong or fit in with WordPress as I view it, yet bringing it to the public’s (disgusted) attentions is a two-edge sword, for it is thus disseminated as well as condemned. A sad situation.

I’m sorry for your annoyance…a sign of the times I suppose. On the other hand, when I read about this “huge vagina” another picture came to mind…think you’ve got problems, take a look at this! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/438045501227335988/

“In polite society porn is given it’s own little corner.” Just wondering, what if polite society changed a little to include positive-possibilities for public sexual intercourse… “…conversation,” that-is; (of course). Maybe that could include soft-porn, or lite-porn – (outside the scope of commercialism, of course)!

&@ Tony Single … LOL

(P.S. And if I face-plant into one more surprise-online-Yoga-instructor ipso-facto reminding me to “sit-up-straight”… anyway, I know what you mean here…”people.”)

Its such a shame that we as women are no longer able to speak out and say I would rather this not be the way it is. The way we are perceived and marketed constantly should be something we’re allowed to have a say in. I completely agree with you view, thank you for being able to stand up and say no i’m not a prude but I want men to be treated in that way either!

“no longer able to speak out…” Yer on the World-Wide-Web! Imagine things 100 years ago sitting in a dirt hut out on the plains dodging arrows & dust-storms!
“…The way we are perceived and marketed constantly…” I think a missed reply opportunity I had the other day will suffice right here: maybe give guys the chance to objectify you, …a quote I cannot find right now… something about, “allowing others the right to think-as-they-will about you.” And if they fail in that cosmic duty to find a balanced, wholistic, & strong way to relate to you, then that will be their-loss.

I just read a blog from a teenager. I pray this doesn’t pop up in her face. It shouldn’t pop up in anyone’s face without their permission. Shame on that person who posted the surprise pop up. A blog I was reading blog (not WordPress) and part of it had a web address superimposed over some of it-a pharmacy selling Viagra, etc. what a shame. Nothing is sacred any more.

I agree with you. I do not think of myself as a prude at all. I quite enjoy looking at nude photography when done tastefully. However, that is when I want to look at it and not when it just pops up on a random wordpress account, while browsing. That should be behind a NSFW banner or not appear on normal wordpress at all. You have every right to be annoyed!

LOVE this post. I hate seeing this stuff, even more so now that I have two daughters of my own who will have to learn to navigate in a (sadly) culture that continues to objectify women and then flip it and say we are owning our power. Please. Thanks for writing this. It makes us all seem a bit more united against “those” neighbors. 🙂

Don’t think this tame pic bothers me. Some of the more clinical ones are different. I think I’m in agreement that WordPress is better off without porn. Especially since there a ton of sites for porn out there already. Stumbling across a hard core site here would be like stumbling across some of the ones where every other word is F*** this or F**** that. Cheapens the whole blogging experience.

I totally agree. There are other blogging sites such as Tumblr that are even worse. I was very happy when I found less on here. But still, it’s alarming to find this type of content so easily accessible to those who are under age. Or so blatant to those of us who are not under age, and just don’t want our eyes slapped with that type of exposure.

I also think there is a place for everything. I wouldn’t expect to see this if I’m not specifically searching for it. I have nothing against porn in general,( though there are some specifics we won’t get into) but I don’t like it shoved in my face, as it were.
However, the things I’ve found when e.g looking at dora the explorer videos on YouTube with the kids make me shudder. Sometimes the places you get to when browsing the net are… unexpected.

I shall highlight what i feel in the form of a few questions posed to the world (or whoever reads this) at large.
why is there no male equivalent of the word “slut”
are men even actually objectified?
Privacy mean anything to anybody?
some people think tattoos are a work of art others don’t.Some think porn is art and some don’t.
i mean yes Adam and Eve were naked, but there is a reason why “nakedness” should be restricted to one’s own haven.
In porn you have two or however many exploiting each other’s bodies to gain pleasure, the movement is selfish, it’s rash, and even though our brains are hardwired to arousal by stimulus, i’m sure there are other more aesthetic ways of doing and showing it.
Sex is something personal, this is an absolute personal opinion, doesn’t matter if your a stripper or a librarian, “porn” is………not everybody’s cup of tea.
This topic is very subjective but I’m glad you highlighted it.

“why is there no male equivalent of the word ‘slut'” Because society is apparently run by men at the top who decide that women will not be at the top; nor will men who question this.
“are men even actually objectified?” Men are objectified as the pretty-much the opposite of women; question this, (as always), “at your own peril.”
P.S. Love your pic!! http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/b5f0e5adb7603c7600d11189a95776ff I been looking the past couple days at the “dark-matter / dark-energy” theory in the universe, and wondering how much of ourself is made-up of the stuff – perhaps our subconscious soul? Much to ponder.

I can’t stand porn…nearly ruined my relationship. Never used to have a problem with it until then. Facebook has pages that are rather revealing…young girls in bikinis or showing their butts. These are NOT acceptable sites for this type of thing. It is everyone and I hate it showing up in front of me. That is my rant!

Everyone should have the freedom to blog. You do have a choice to read and see what you want as a reader on WordPress. I write a stripper blog to relate and connect with other dancers. I stumbled on WordPress because I was curious to how others were feeling about the industry. There is no better place to look than the internet. It’s unfortunate that you saw something distasteful but I think the body is a of art. Just hope you see my view of why I’m glad people in the industry blog..

No way? How interesting. I shall come over and visit. As for a work of art so is Picasso unless you roll it up and shove it up someone’s jacksy! What I’m saying is there’s a place for everything.

Plus you do NOT have a choice of seeing porn if you are not pre warned and the owner of it has purposely displayed it in an incorrect category. Did you read the post? I don’t know if anyone in this discussion has said that the person responsible should not have the freedom to blog.
Also whilst they are part of the adult industry are you equating stripping to porn?

Yes I am equally stripping to light porn. Most clubs I know are fully nude. And like anything on the internet, there is no strict filter. There is a place for everything, and maybe its the generation I am from, but nothing surprises me on the internet or rated “pg13” movie.

Hey we’re all adults here. It is nothing we haven’t seen before. It is the inappropriateness most of us have a problem with and some of us like to try and maintain some degree of standards.
Your view is interesting. Most of the strippers I was acquainted with were at great pains to disassociate with porn. Each to their own.

WP does have an avenue to remove views of this ladies cul-de-sac from your reader or random browsing. If you hover over the blog title in top left a menu is magically revealed by the little computer people who do the scene shifting. On there is an option ‘Report this content’. If you click, a winged interweb messenger will whisk the report deep into the bowels of the WordPress Wonderland, whereby a minion will affix a sticky note to the offending blog. The sticky note is a reminder to the WordPress filing clerks to omit the offending blog from any public forums.

Hope that helps. Oh, and thanks for stopping by and leaving your calling card. Most pleased to make your acquaintance.

Hmmm…I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend while driving back from work recently…he was curious about what blogging was all about, and what I blogged about, etc etc…I told him how people from across the globe could become your friends and if used judiciously, how enriching an experience it could be…then we started discussing, what made a blog popular with readers….to which he asked, “why not blog about sex? everyone loves that, right?”…and I said, “well, if one wants to read/see sex online, there are so many more options. Bloggers hope for something more enriching than mere titillation when following other fellow bloggers”…Am I in a minority here, if I feel that way?

Nope. I think you are right. The blogging experience can be cerebral, spiritual, enriching as you said. None of which porn is. Porn is very popular online so it’s not as if anyone who wants to indulge can’t find a home to do it.

I’ve had 2 people inform me that I had a choice over what I saw. It’s not brain surgery. You wouldn’t go to a football match and expect to see ballet. Neither would you go to a porn site and expect to see a cookery programme. This is not a porn site, hence I did not click on an innocuous tag and expect to see someone’s head up someone else’s bottom end. In polite society porn is given it’s own little corner. This is not even an argument for or against porn it is about inappropriate and selfish behaviour.

Seriously though, it does nothing for me. I’m just an average, hetero bloke who loves the female form as much as the next average, hetero bloke, and yet I feel… well, actually INSULTED when I look at that image.

Frankly, she may as well be an overcooked turkey splayed out on a platter. The image is that tacky and unappealing, and – quite frankly – manipulative. I do not appreciate this attempt at manipulation. The message is clear: “You WILL have sexy sex with me. Now. On the floor. Like I’m a piece of meat.” It’s sex selling itself in the crassest possible way.

No thanks. I’m not buying. I already know how wonderful and amazing and downright fun sex can be. This poor excuse of an image does nothing to enhance that knowledge.